RU. Novel, 1996.

Adventure historical fantasy-detective, China, 1425 a. d.

The Shaolin monastery is famous in the Chinese Empire in the enlightened XV century. There live the monks highly skilled in the arts of fighting and the Emperor himself regards them with favor. The reverend Chzhan Vo belonging to the highest rank of the monastery administration is at the same time the chief of the Emperor's secret police; the Shaolin treasury is full terrible things, thousands of peasants work in the fields belonging to the monastery. It is not strange because about half a century ago the warriors clad in yellow attires to the leader of the uprising of "red bandages" assisting him to drive the Mongol invaders back to the northern steppes and helped him, a simple peasant Chzhu Younchzhan, to ascend the throne of the Emperors of China. The policy of the Middle Empire is silently and inevitably directed by the invisible hands bearing the signs of the dragon and tiger. But strange things do happen in this world of vanity... In one of the towns of China an esteemed merchant all of a sudden came secretly to the house of an eminent dignitary and tore to pieces a rare flower and then pierced his own heart with a knife; then the Eighth Aunt, the wife of a humble dyer, attacked the bodyguards of the Emperor's brother and killed half of them, after which she broke the spine of the favorite little dog of the concubine Suan and cut her own throat with the governor's sword. Never before had the esteemed merchant attempted to be a thieve, never had the Eighth Aunt been skilled in any fighting arts, but on the third day after the death of both criminals very strange spot appeared on their bodies: the signs of the dragon and tiger.

And it is not by chance that the monk with shaven head advised the judge Bao who was appointed to investigate these strange cases to be not too diligent in his enquiries. What in fact is going on in the famous monastery, why the shadow of the patriarch Damo haunts it? It is he, the Bearded Barbarian, who long ago founded the monastery, but his goal had been neither the hoarding of gold nor the political games... Why were the Laws of Karma broken, where did the epidemic of the Buddha Madness come from, why are the dead rising from their graves and how could enter the monastery the strange boy now and then employing in his speech the hackers' slang of the end of the XX century? The answers to all these questions the reader is to find together with the judge Bao, the Taosian wizard Lan Taosin and other heroes of this novel combining several genre of fiction: mystical fantasy, cyberpunk, alternative history and, of course, the "philosophical thriller", which still is the favorite style of Henry Lion Oldie.

The novel "Messiah Clears the Disk" was admitted to the list of the Moscow bestsellers (9th place in the general rating). In 1997 it was given the prize of the Association of Russian-Language Writers of Israel "For an outstanding contribution in the development of modern Russian literature". In 1999, at "Star Bridge" SF & Fantasy Festival in Kharkov (Ukraine) H. L. Oldie received "The Black Belt" (1st degree) as a "Fan-Do Master" - for some fighting fragments from the novel "Messiah Clears the Disk". In 2001, at "Star Bridge" SF & Fantasy Festival in Kharkov (Ukraine) H. L. Oldie got "The Golden Medals of Shaolin" (China-Russia, Shaolin U-Shu Association of Russia) for their novel "Messiah Clears the Disc".

This novel was published many times in Russia, and also in Poland and in Lithuania; the number of copies amount more than 120.000.